Cultural Diversity in My Neighborhood
Cultural Diversity in my Neighborhood
Eth 125
Sept 12 2010
Cultural Diversity in my Neighborhood
I have always wondered why people can’t seem to get along, why is it that people are judged by the color of their skin, or the way they talk, or the God they worship? Our country was founded on immigrants, all different races and ethnic cultures. Everyone should be treated equally in this country, but unfortunately that is not the case.
I live in Minnesota, it is a beautiful state with all the lakes, rivers and forests. In the past few weeks my living situation has changed. I used to live in a suburb of Minneapolis, which is very diverse in different cultures. I now live in northern Minnesota in a old railroad town called Staples. That being said I will try to write about both communities and the differences between them,
The culture of Minnesota is a subculture of the United States with influences from Scandinavian Americans, German Americans, Native Americans, African Americans, Polish Americans and numerous other immigrant groups. (Cleary, 2001)
When living in Plymouth the diverse cultures of a metropolitan area consisted of every culture and ethnicticity you could imagine. The area is predominately white at 83.4% although; 62.5% of all African Americans in Minnesota live in Hennepin County. Asian/Pacific Islanders in the metropolitan area account for 37%, 24.6% of Hispanic’s, and 27.9% of Native Americans. (Cleary, 2001) In comparison, I am now in Todd County in which 98.9% of the population is white. I have seen few African Americans, although there is a very large Amish community close to us. (City of Staples, Minnesota, 2010)
In Todd county, the majority of the community all look alike, being predominately of German decent, the sterotyping of large ears and big noses hold true. My mother was German and Canadian and luckly I did not inherit these features, The Scandinavian culture here I do look like blond, blue eyes and tend to be a bit over
Eth 125
Sept 12 2010
Cultural Diversity in my Neighborhood
I have always wondered why people can’t seem to get along, why is it that people are judged by the color of their skin, or the way they talk, or the God they worship? Our country was founded on immigrants, all different races and ethnic cultures. Everyone should be treated equally in this country, but unfortunately that is not the case.
I live in Minnesota, it is a beautiful state with all the lakes, rivers and forests. In the past few weeks my living situation has changed. I used to live in a suburb of Minneapolis, which is very diverse in different cultures. I now live in northern Minnesota in a old railroad town called Staples. That being said I will try to write about both communities and the differences between them,
The culture of Minnesota is a subculture of the United States with influences from Scandinavian Americans, German Americans, Native Americans, African Americans, Polish Americans and numerous other immigrant groups. (Cleary, 2001)
When living in Plymouth the diverse cultures of a metropolitan area consisted of every culture and ethnicticity you could imagine. The area is predominately white at 83.4% although; 62.5% of all African Americans in Minnesota live in Hennepin County. Asian/Pacific Islanders in the metropolitan area account for 37%, 24.6% of Hispanic’s, and 27.9% of Native Americans. (Cleary, 2001) In comparison, I am now in Todd County in which 98.9% of the population is white. I have seen few African Americans, although there is a very large Amish community close to us. (City of Staples, Minnesota, 2010)
In Todd county, the majority of the community all look alike, being predominately of German decent, the sterotyping of large ears and big noses hold true. My mother was German and Canadian and luckly I did not inherit these features, The Scandinavian culture here I do look like blond, blue eyes and tend to be a bit over
References: City of Staples, Minnesota. (2010). Staples, Minnesota statistics. Retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/city/Staples-Minnesota.html Cleary, J. (2001, Feb). Racial/Ethnic Minorities in Minnesota:Geographical Distribution Among the Counties. Retrieved from http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hrd/pubs/mintminn.pdf Myhre, C. (2010, Mar 18). Our Combined Famlies. Retrieved from http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=chrisy1953&id=I1393